The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Saturday took a youth into custody during a series of searches in Hyderabad’s old city on the suspicion of having links with the operatives of terrorist organisation Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) who were arrested last year.

According to a police official familiar with the development, the NIA sleuths on Saturday morning conducted searches in eight houses at Sastripuram and King’s Colony at Mylar Devpalli in the old city around 8 am and took one Tahir into custody from King’s Colony. The NIA sleuths are learnt to have seized some incriminating documents from his residence.

After initial questioning, Tahir was taken to the NIA headquarters at Madhapur and is presently being questioned.

The searches followed the leads given by two youth - Mohammad Abdullah Basith of Hafeez Baba Nagar and Mohammad Abdul Qadeer of Chandrayangutta, who were arrested in August 2018 on charges of having links with the ISIS.

The NIA charged Basith with being a member of an ISIS module in Abu Dhabi. He had allegedly gone to Syria via Pakistan to undergo training with the ISIS. He and his associates were found to have planned an attack in Delhi and another attack on a RSS leader. Last year, the NIA Delhi sleuths had foiled the conspiracy.

The police suspected that Basith had provided an AK-47 and some other explosives and cash to four of his associates in Hyderabad.

The NIA investigations reportedly traced him on the basis of his social media posts claiming that he had connections with a Pakistan-based woman, who he had married later. She is said to be highly radicalised and maintains contacts with an ISIS handler abroad.

First Published: Apr 20, 2019 13:51 IST